Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Recent Reading: Larry McMurtry's Western Novel 'Boone's Lick'

Our reading list extends far and wide, we think, which is one reason we keep reading novels by American writers.

In a world of iPhones, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, it sometimes seems like we are among the hearty few in Tulsa (or anywhere else) who bother to read any books at all, much less a novel.

But we just finished off Larry McMurtry's western Boone's Lick, a story about a lonely wife's family trek from Missouri to Wyoming in search of her delinquent husband.

We can't say this is a McMurtry masterpiece (go to Lonesome Dove for that), but it's a well-told story with some strong characters and a ring of truth.

The "truth" part comes in the form of real historical persons and events that turn up here, including Wild Bill Hickok, Red Cloud, the Bozeman Trail, and the ill-fated Fort Phil Kearny.

Both in real life and in the novel, Fort Phil Kearny is where a brash Civil War veteran Col. Fetterman led his men into an disastrous ambush, resulting in a one-sided Indian victory ten years before Custer's doomed command at the Little Bighorn.

There's no ocean in Tulsa, of course, but this is good beach reading—and we mean this in a good way. Check out Boone's Lick, published by Simon & Schuster in 2000.